think that the soldiers ought to be scared and taken into the p.o.w. camp and the indication was these people are free for murder and the german soldiers read these articles and heard news like that on the radio and in a battle situation according to the the the ganda one of the cameras they felt this person must have been the prisoner of a black unit and must have cut that person to pieces and willing to seek revenge of the outrage and the black soldiers be separated from the right soldiers and also from the north africans who were usually put

together with the white soldiers and in the black soldiers were led away. very often there was execution at the edge of the forest, at the end of the field. usually without witnesses because in those regions in france what has happened many of the civilians have left, they fled before the german army are arrived so there were often few witnesses except for the soldiers in the army and in many cases they were just nine of the edge of the field and executed with machine guns. the light french soldiers and officers later on this all this and they heard it and often saw the corpses when they were driven away to the p.o.w. camp. most of the african soldiers were delivered at. few of them left written sources. there are a few in the archives but they're mostly the french

educated lower rank officers and they have a particular perspective. the most detailed documents were the accounts of white french officers and these accounts they wrote shortly after the campaign a couple of months or year or two after the campaign and they rode them with a very different purpose. they rode them to highlight certain soldiers who should get military medals and they also read them because the french government and the army wanted to understand what had gone wrong in 1940, why did we use this campaign so disastrously so it wasn't about human rights or not document in the massacres, but in the context of trying to explain the defeat, the officers very often gave a lot of detail on what had actually happened in the combat right after these

people were taken prisoner so those are the most important sources. the soldiers in the diaries admit that they did kill africans. very few of them, but what you can see in the german source mostly the stereotypes about men eating african soldiers that mirror almost 1-1 in the proceeding days. one of the things that surprised me is that the massacres were by no means universal. there were german officers who were exposed to the san nazi propaganda of those that ordered the massacres but decided this is not right. this is against the geneva convention, this is a legal even though the official nazi newspaper essentially legitimized the killing of the prisoners it's the wrong thing

to do, and many officers decided not to do it. there were some german soldiers who stepped out and said stop this. we can't do this. there were quite a few that did block such an execution and what surprised me is in some cases we have the writings of these officers who did not participate in the massacre. sometimes they were just as those that ordered the massacres that have this remainder of decency and legalistic thinking where it's not the right thing to do. let's not mess occur these people and feel bad about not having recognized the whole contribution of african soldiers to the second world war and the reason they didn't recognize

this is because they became very unruly in 1944, 45, and led some of the revolts and some of them went into the independent movement as a very painful issue in france like many french people feel that these people have not received enough attention, so in france the book became a huge disability because of the bad conscience and in germany because the whole debate about the german army and its involvement. there were victims that were largely forgotten after the second world war and we want the readers to understand the complexity of the totalitarian state that in very different

ways not always predictable, not always logical, and to understand this complexity which i think is crucial to helping us understand or undermine prejudice in general. it's very complicated and give it to. >> on the recent visit to maine we toured the special collections in brunswick. we have this collection of senator george mitchell highlighting his life and political career. here is a look. >> senator mitchell speakers are located here and if you look over here to the left you will see a row after row of boxes on contact shelving which of course

allows for denser storage the easy accessibility. so we have here probably two-thirds of the papers donated to us in 1995. senator mitchell's class of '94 donated his papers when he retired from the senate in 1995 and comprises over a thousand pieces of material and rows of boxes and they are incredible portend scholars interested in the politics of government but also the national and international politics and foreign affairs because of michel's prominent role throughout his distinguished career on both national and internationally. i thought i would start with the college your book to read this is the class of 53 but it shows

the senator as folks like to call him as a basketball player and you see down here at the end of mitchell comments often that he feels inferior to his brother's better academically gifted and now he was somebody with two left feet and never really got a chance to shine but at least he shined wanted to be on the university team for basketball. this shows senator mitchell and bill cohen in the class of 1962 to the effect he was the senior senator from maine and mitchell was the elected leader, said he was older and was sort of a junior. when he and kaelin get together, i don't know. but they work together very closely in the senate just like being on opposite sides of the aisle and this is a photograph that shows them in collaboration during the act when mitchell had

first been appointed to the senate he had been named the secretary of state and mitchell was appointed to fill his vacancy in 1980. in his early senate career his campaign literature shows mitchell on election night in 1982 the first year that he actually ran for the seat appointed for it was a tough campaign and he came out on top and send letters from strong thurmond who at the time was the secretary and the senate congratulate senator mitchell on his selection of what was his first election. we continue to get materials from his office in the law firm in new york city, and it's still getting awards and generating material for his career and so they come to rest over time.

in 1990 having just been elected the senate majority leader, mitchell was involved in the 1990 amendments to the act and this is a letter from george h. w. bush thanking him for his collaboration and succeeding in getting that legislation passed. the 1990 amendment was important for us today. we paid $4 a gallon for gas in the sense that it was the amendment that discussed the composition of gas and the introduction of chemicals during certain seasons of the year in order to make for cleaner air. in a sample of his writing style. there are researchers to come because they're interested in particular topics but there's also people that come because the interested in particular techniques or approaches. some people are interested in the newspapers because of the negotiation for instance. and so this is a research

question that bridges a variety of the records that we have and others are interested in his rhetoric. how much of it was involved in writing the speech but here is evidence of how intimately he was involved in the writing process draft after draft and he was striking things out to prepare his remarks in the senate floor proposing this in the 1990 legislation. another part of his career really touched on his involvement in the iran contra hearings and one of the central figures in the congressional hearings was oliver north, and mitchell was appointed the person on the committee to interrogate north. indeed it is the very fact that americans can criticize their

government openly and without fear of reprisal that is the essence of our freedom and that will keep us free. we've also taken the position of imperial some people might describe it, and senator mitchell was in the only person because he asserted that. as a consequence of that, of course mitchell became a rock star in the country to get people all over had comments of anger, but no relation to mitchell to rise aside from being kind sent in a card thanking him for doing so much and they included a box of chocolates. of course the chocolate company in california.

but the irony is he had a system making sure there were refreshments and things to keep him happy on the top of that list and then the letter here from orrin hatch indicating his admiration and respect for michel's participation in the community is of course on the other side of the aisle from the papers that certainly is a period in time where there is considerable collegiality on politicians regardless of their political beliefs. he is a loyal alumnus and he comes to the defense occasionally. he's provided considerable support for the history project and he has delivered the address from time to time.

he does not have a position and does not teach class's but when he comes he visits the class is particularly in the government affairs department whenever he's on campus to come and speak to those students, and i think it is really a terrific experience for them and a great opportunity for him. after he retires in 1995, he has a private life is in equally distinguished. he is appointed by the president and the minn grows into a special appointment not federally mandated but internationally mandated to negotiate the good friday agreement, and that was in 1998 and so what we have here are the players from that time period even before he was appointed in

1995 he's communicating with the press minister of northern ireland thinking mitchell for washington, d.c. and there is a ground work that is being laid for the subsequent negotiations and there is some difficulties the good friday accord are ratified and here is a letter of the prime minister of ireland sinking senator mitchell. and here's a picture with patrick who is the foreign minister for northern ireland getting a sense of the casualness in part it to the meeting they are having and typically mitchell is spending a loof time listening.

the negotiation skills seem to work and it's his ability to bring the parties together and get ready a chance and then also come to the different issues are and how the accommodation can be reached. then i guess most recently mitchell is a special envoy to the middle east. in a point that which it was made his colleagues and friends said it's just not going to work and struck out for two years it didn't come to any fruitful result. but i know for a fact how hard he worked because we need to be in touch with him for some reason or another and there is always a guess about where he was going to be and how quickly he would be able to respond. from hillary rodham clinton as

the secretary of state and a second letter of thanks from barack obama for the same topic. >> when you give speeches and he says people ask him what is your most memorable part of your career he says i would have to say that other people think the most memorable part of my career is the baseball scandal. those records are not here. he was involved in the red cross fund distributions because he was working in the capacity of those organizations so they apply in other places. the congressional papers end up with congressional records, too and they have to create the institutions if they want to pull the whole picture together. >> coverage continues here on booktv.

>> we are in our public reading room. we of patrons doing genealogical research and personal computers and looking for good works and we are going into these main authors collection and in the early 1920's henry is the state librarian at the time started collecting books by the writers trying to get them signed whenever possible, and it's grown into this. in fact we also have an annex to this room but we have thousands of titles by writers that have some connection to the state of maine. we like to say that stephen king, the typical rider has about 15 or 20 specific ways that he is connected to the state, first education, employment, so if anybody else needs any one of those criteria, for example, his son no longer

lives in the state of maine but we still claim it. he's been collecting books since 86 here in the state library. we have a number of unique or very rare items. we have a copy of the first edition of the book of mormon which has been in the state library since approximately 1848 was published in 1830. the first one was 5,000 copies and they are only institutions there are fewer than 10%. what makes our copy of a bit different is if you come to the maine state library we will put out of the safe and let you look at it with gloves because that connection to the literature is so important to so many people we did that is something valuable that we can do. we believe in preserving books that there is no point in preserving them without access

so that's something we do a little bit differently than other libraries. but one item that we do not let anybody actually touch and that is the martha diaries. she was a midwife that lived in maine. the next town down the river. from 75 to 1812, and she kept a hand written dyer -- diary of her midwife in the 1970's she inscribed the diary and have a book based on it called the midwife's tale this is incredible detail talking to what she's doing it brings that time period alive from a woman's

perspective, from the health care perspective, things that we don't think about. her perspective is actually interesting in that she is much more free and doing what needs to be done than our imaginations are in that time period we expect women to have them go quiet and gentle she is the doctor. she is taking care of people. it's just a wonderful look at women's history in a way that we don't always do. this isn't paul revere, this isn't the revolution because it's just happened, but it is day-to-day life, and that truly is the biggest in the collection. when we talk about the literary history of augusta, we are really talking about the magazine's published not so much

as magazines house mail-order catalogs disguised as magazines. comfort magazine was published by the gamut company. he was an entrepreneur and he created something called giant box -- oxion. if you had it would cure it. was a little trouble with and you put it in water and drank at and always made well. it brought comfort to your life. the mail-order catalogs at that time were actually magazines. so the montgomery ward catalog we would have these magazines and in the stories it would make your life better in some ways to

and are a precursor. it was a way to bypass advertisers, bypassed traditional publishing and sell your product directly to the market's. this is late 19th century through the early 20th century. 1880s the 1930's because been particularly augusta had access, and to make the paper transit things were published here. it made more sense to actually print these periodicals in augusta and shut them out. augusta has this enormous post office which is a castle, no longer use the current post office which is a very small building but at that time we were shifting in incredible

amounts of magazines all over the world. it's the first magazine to reach a million subscribers. we have the complete run, and they've all been come served. we is the northeast document center for taking care of them and they are wrapped in incredible detail to protect them, one layer of paper, another layer of paper. because they were working so hard to say they were a magazine coming off a catalog, how the postal shipping rates varied by that they published news articles and people love the time. the provision got started in maine and comfort my magazine

was really heavily in favor of prohibition. they're selling a cute little drug that makes you feel better. they were lots of articles on the kind of things that you would see today in the magazines like good housekeeping. but easily 80% of it was advertising at any one time. and one of the things they did is everything was free if you got more subscribers to the comfort magazine and if you bought this thing you did that for free. it was our advertising that circulated all over the country. in fact the state that had the single most was california and the success is the reason the field. when the postal rates changed

from a straight right to the regional rate it became entirely too expensive to know something from augusta to california so that made a huge difference and that is what killed it. meijer and avery of the operation trail completely intertwined wouldn't have the trial without a free. deborah is the person that said they read an article that there should be a trail that you can walk from georgia to maine to see the whole country. modern avery is the person that went off and built the trail who walked it who was the first person to actually walk the length of the trail. he was a native born in quebec.

his family background was in sardine tanning which is a huge industry in maine in the 19th and early 20th century. but he loved the woods. he became a tv to an attorney and a captain in the navy and spent according to one source up to 50 weekends a year working on the trail. he was headquartered in maryland, and so he found the evolution club in that group. wouldn't assist without him. he died unexpectedly at the age of 52 and to the maine state library because of the on timeliness of his death none of it was organized and they are still trying to get a good handle there are thousands of

pictures that he took or that his friends took of things happening at the state along the trail as he was building at. some of them are incredibly fun. there is a photograph of an old man and it is titled old man byron standing in the shot they would go through the farm. avery said they couldn't without the cooperation of the land owner, and he had a really good relationships with the land owners across mean to get access across the country, to get access to where the trail is now. this was especially exciting because it's the 75th anniversary of the trail completion. in addition to photographs, under construction, the camp for sale, the camp is in fine

condition and people are still camping. he wrote on all of the photographs what they were about. this is byron avery and he is on the back of the truck going between spots for trail building. most of these photographs are taken in 1920's, and what i found was again there were far more women particularly with the potomac revelation at the blazing trail and helping build the trail. for most that hide the whole trail at the time they start in georgia and the end in maine and you can get started in march in georgia and finish up in september october. you can't start until june.

this is myron avery's book about the appalachian trail. it's absolutely wonderful. and the opening paragraph is delightful. through the forests across the depths of the maine wilderness is the cathedral life stillness in the driven aero like the silver dial the gateway to the finest of the mountains, lakes, forests and streams the poet those that travel the course of peace, duty and solitude may indeed feel that this is the force of primeval bearded with moss and in distinct in the twilight. ..

>> thank you. thanks for the introduction. thanks for the naval order for having be. before we get started i want to cover a couple things here. i don't have the capability -- can we turn the volume up on the wall somewhere? you in the back are supposed to be taking care of this. turned the volume up.

okay. i think they're working on it now. is that better? what if i do that? is that better? okay. if you want something done you got to do it yourself. before i was the best selling author -- before i get started anyone who is the veteran or active duty please stand up. given around of applause. thank you for your service. before we get started on this glamorous navy seal road which is not as glamorous as it sounds, everyone who stood up even though they're not a navy seal their service and dedication was every bit as important and a still part of the greatest military in the world so thank them for their service. before i was the best selling author, before i had two or three books, before -- we are

now in 26 countries and 17 languagess, a best seller all over europe and just got back from a european tour and sitting in my office one day brad pitt and been diesel called me fighting in a bidding war to buy the movie rights to my book. my wife is sitting there being a big brad pitt and going go brad. but anyway, vin diesel outbid brad and my wife is still upset about that. before that happened, before i was part of this elite counterterrorism team i had a humble beginning and if that beginning started like this. i was born two months premature to a teenage mom who had just turned 16. i remember going to bed hungry many nights before the age of 7 at which time i was adopted and

raised in an abusive environment, beaten by a step that. if i gave you all that, and told you i would one day accomplish all the things i had accomplished you would say how? some people can say it is because you had a lot of determination. maybe because you had a big heart or a lot of drive. you could have all those things and still never accomplish what i have accomplished without one thing -- the reason i was able to accomplish that is i had the blessing of being born into the greatest country in the world. you can all applaud on that. greatest country in the world where no matter where you are born or how poor you are or where you come from or to your mom or dad was, you are still able to achieve what you achieve. the reason that is is because of the people who came before me who fought and gave us that right and we are losing sight of

that right now. i have never been afraid for our country as i am right now. i am afraid for our country right now, but we have got to hold on to the greatness we have and i will get into how we can do that later. you have to know when you are winning. when i was in seal team 6 i really thought i was winning. i was high speed, low drag. chicks' budget. and you are deploying all over the world working with the best people and i thought i was winning. pharma counterterrorism standpoint i was but from a personal standpoint i wasn't. i couldn't served two masters. found out later through psychology at wasn't able to

divide that. i wasn't able to do that. i had to serve one master and mine was a seal team. you have to decide what is winning. if you think you are winning, we can take this across the board. are we winning as a nation? are you winning as an individual? are you winning in a relationship? the easy way to answer that question is to find what you want to accomplish. what do you want to accomplish? then you can be fine if you are winning. this young man here, those of you who read the book know the story but i will cover for those of you that don't. this young man here didn't have the blessing to be born in the united states. he was born in somalia. i was out in my safe house and those who don't know what a safe house is, a safe house is when you go deep into enemy territory, get a residence, a

house in this case or whatever and pay these agents. go in with the cia, hades agents to come in and out of the house and gather information and based on that information you act on that intelligence and we were running a successful state house in somalia. so successful we were able to get food all over the city, get most of the bad people who were responsible for the civil war and starvation but one night when i was on the roof of the safe house i smell a horrible smell. i will not try to gross anybody out but if you have never smelled human flesh rodding, it is not like road kill. it is horrible. it is nauseating like you just got to get away from it. i smelled the smell and tomorrow we got to find out what that is and get rid of it. the next morning i came up on the roof which is where we

watched our agents coming in and out and protect them as they are coming and beating the state house and i didn't smell anything. maybe it was somebody pulling something through the neighborhood or whatever. the next night i am on the roof and the same smell again and again. that night we put on night vision goggles and walked through the perimeter of the courtyard. you see the walkway behind him. that is where i am walking. i saw someone planted there but this young man was going to school, 12 years old and stepped on a land mine on the playground. the somaliss know that you can enter somebody at an early age and maim them you won't have to fight them later in life. all the things we take for granted in the united states, going to school and getting an education, by no other virtues

and we were born here, nobody here deserves to be an american. nobody here before you were born got held a contest and set your good to go, you deserve it, you get to be an american. by the grace of god we are americans. this little guy was born into one of the worst environment possible. into a country where you are going to starve to death, definitely get cholera and a bunch of other diseases. if not you might get maimed. not having the benefits i have -- as bad as my childhood was, i got beaten with a belt. i went to bed hungry if you times because i was born to teenage mom. my life was pretty bad. most people here never had it really bad. this guy has it bad. now he is dying because his right foot is blown off and his left foot is partially blown off. he is lying there and has gangrene and is dying a slow

miserable death. being americans what do we want to do? help the kid. do i really want to help the kid? i am running a safe house. i am in the middle of bad guy territory. everybody around me is hostile. i am risking the lives of my agents and my team if i help this young man because that is not my job. my job is to gather intelligence, get rid of the bad guys and do what needs to be done to take care of business. being raised in a cell and being a christian i had to make some hard choices. when i made the radio call asking for compromise authority to help this young man, you just don't know. that basically put your career on the line. the captain who just introduced me what that means, do something you know you are not supposed to do i am willing to sacrifice me,

my guys's lives to help this one kid who might be al qaeda for all i know. i don't know who this kid is so anyway made radio calls and compromise authority. can't help the guy. two nigh later i am back on the roof and not only is the smell worse now, i know what is going on. my heart is breaking and i start hearing a moan. i didn't come here to the press anybody but if you never heard the moaning of somebody dying, that death mon is the most heart wrenching thing you ever heard. imagine a 12-year-old having that moan. after that, one more night i couldn't take any more. i did the only thing that i knew it. we had a saying in the seal team. my wife hates it but better to ask for forgiveness than permission. so what we did was suited up,

imagine four big men kicking in your door coming in with submachine guns, faces of black out, coming in and grabbing you and you and you and putting you in flex cuffs and lining you against the wall. then you hear your son in the next room screaming. do you think four emissaries of god have come to help you? know. what we had to do because we didn't know who they were so we put them against the wall and what we had to do for this young man is called d breed his wound. we had to scrub out the net chronic or did tissue and pump him full of a couple ivs and give him a few shots and put some bandages on him and cut the flex cuts which are these little hand cuffs you put on people, take a gaggle of the people and leave.

not a happy ending. the next night we kicked in the door and came in like we did the night before and put you in the flex cuffs and firmly into a corner and scrubland down again and a couple more ivs. these people know by now we are helping them. what did we do the third night? the same thing again? no. you are setting a pattern. skip the night. they might know you are coming. you are not a tactical genius i can tell. we skipped a night. if they were the bad guys with 50 night for two reasons. we need an interpreter and freaking two night in a row at they were bad guys it could be a

track or whatever. we skipped a night. the third night we came in and kicked open the door and everybody felt like this with their hands up. no grabbing them and putting them in flex cuffs and one lady sitting in the house, the lady of the house had a cup of tea and a tray of tea she held up and this was tee and i found out through my interpreter later, this is gratitude, this family had spent everything they had to buy that key for us. giving me everything you got means a lot more than giving something. they gave everything they had. they had enough money to buy that tee and had that for us. we were able to talk to them and found out they were part of the good plan that we were helping

and that they did have a witch doctor who was doing some potions for the kid and everything and that wasn't working. that is how we found out about the tee. how to do the wound care and give them antibiotics and let them take over. my lesson to you is sometimes you got to do the right thing regardless if someone tells you it is the wrong thing. you got to do the right thing. just because someone might look like your enemy and sound like your enemy they are not necessarily your enemy. what i hear all the time when i tell this story is we have people in the united states who need care, health care, food. i had some hit me in the face with it. you were hungry as the man. don't you think we ought to be spending our time and resources taking care of that instead of taking care of everybody else? you know what? i got that answer for myself.

you got to have that answer in your own heart. i doubt there's one person in this room i could take you to some of the places i have been that you see a starving child, you see a child dying that you could help and then you answer that question. then it is personal. not just seeing it on television. becomes personal. get back to winning. i knew i was winning then. the little guy lived and after i was shot up in that battle and everything i asked my see i a buddy to get a wheelchair and got in a wheelchair so that was at the ending. and notice how easy it is for how it was to know when he is winning when he is on a mission or whatever. look at this picture here. the next time you think oh boy, we had it rough as americans, you got to do something. go to your bathroom or your kitchen or go outside, turn on a faucet and watch what comes out.

water. potable water that you cannot drink. i am not being funny. i am not being facetious. something that simple that we have so good for so long that we miss the big picture. look at this picture here. that is a 4-year-old pouring water over the head of and 18-month-old. when we found these two little girls they both had cholera. i am not going to discuss the with what colorados to the human body but it is not crazy. they may see it un dehydrates you and you die of dehydration and lack of in electrolytes and your heart can't even beat. these two kids had cholera so we vaccinated them and had to show them where to go to get a good water. later on we showed them how to boil water to make it clean. when you wake of tomorrow before you start thinking how bad we

got it as americans -- that girl watched herself and brushed her teeth. i watch the day in and day out and watching little sister and to wash dishes and go back to et water tfill the system and so ty driinwater. i conside this probably ut t msi in soma the that was my friend who died in a helicopter crash. when you look at this and you think that is just hollywood. that is not just hollywood. that is real people there. what happened after the helicopter went down and my humvee, started going to the crash site. keep in mind the type of man i had become. i will share this with you. i had become so cocky, so arrogant, and so in to just being a team member that i did not even associate outside those

circles. think about that. i am tailor-made for this. abusive childhood, never had anything to hold on to, no nurturing so finally i get a team, and i am the best at it i could be. going to seal 6 and a sniper and lime cream of the crop as far as spec opposite go. i watch people get injured around me and people get shot on either side of me but never got a scratch. 750 to sky dive, never sprained an ankle. i was a freak of nature. that doesn't happen. you get hurt at some point. none of that happened to me. i was tactical got. and god decided on october 3rd, 1993, to show me i was tactical got only as long as he allowed me to be. first time i got shot was at the

hotel, olympic hotel when taking prisoners out. i got shot behind the left knee. does anyone here know what i thought when the first bullet hit me? can you guess? i will give you a free book if you can guess. what did i guess? [inaudible] >> in a way. it was i am howard wasdin and i got shot. i you joking? that happens to other people. second, got shot was when we were trying to get to the 6-1 and that almost blew my right leg off. at that time i thought these guys are serious. the third time i got shot when i had my leg propped up trying not to breathe -- bleed to death i got shot for the top of the left foot i was like okay, what you trying to tell me? back to being humble and being human. at that point to that point i thought i was superman. at that point i had to learn

something. i was only human. here is what i struggled with after that. why did people who were better than me -- why didn't they live? why did they die and i was allowed to live? dan bush who was my best friend is dead. why do people who are better men than me dead and gone allowed me to live? i came back with a sickness i didn't even know i had called survivors guilt. we will talk about that in a minute. i will bring you up close and personal with a couple of these people. after i am shot up in the hospital in germany, that is a happy ending, right? i just lost my career. at that point i thought i was going to lose my leg. almost died later of staff infection. going through a divorce. everything i had. lost some good friends. everything i had was pretty much gone that quick just because i

had everything concentrated in one direction and i wasn't well-rounded. i was sitting there after this was all done and in that wheelchair suffering survivor's guilt, feeling sorry for myself. all these bad things are going on and i have 99 mm in my lap thinking maybe a bullish is better than what i am going through. think what a sad state of affairs you have to be in. going from rock star that quick. and the light from didn't move away from me. i moved away from the light. climbed into a bottle, became an alcoholic and was unable to have a stable relationship for ten years because i was a former member of seal team 6. real men don't ask for help. that is the biggest why anybody ever told you. if you were raised by someone

telling you real men don't ask for help or talk about their problems, real men tough it out, you might be making your life miserable and if you are not your making your family's life miserable. i am speaking from experience. let me bring you up close and personal to a couple people here. you won't does see hollywood but real people. chief warrant officer clifton walcott's -- helicopter, we call them the velvet elvis. can anyone guess why we would call a helicopter pilot velvets elvis? i heard somebody back there. why is it? i will show you. this is why we call him velvet elvis. ♪

>> as good as that sounds, this man could sing as good as the king himself. that is not a good part of the story. he was a great elvis impersonator. let us go for another minute. i have to get my favorite part. ♪ >> looking around, their kids here who never even heard of elvis presley i can tell. anyway, that song hong of burning love, imagine this by showing up. he showed up in new orleans. we get into his blackhawk and he is going to fly to kentucky and he waits until we get in the back and get spread out and we laid down in the back all sprawled out. and takes the collective which takes the aircraft up and down

and pulled it up. and he is laughing in the front of the cockpit singing hung of burning love. that is something hollywood can't show you because that doesn't sell. that is not dramatic. that is not rambo. that is one man making a difference. i will tell you what else he did. before he died we were out of ammunition on the ground and when we get in down these task forces of 60 pilots fly low over the enemy's head to get them to shift fire off of us long enough. they are out of bullets. they can't the send themselves but they are flying over their heads to take the fire off of us long enough for us to maneuver. think about the law that takes. while i am on that somebody is going to ask this question so i will take away from you.

how do you go from being a sniper to being a doctor? how do you go from being a doctor -- and snyder to a chiropractor? to ask that question means you don't know the heart of a special operator. you don't know the heart of a man like this. people don't become seals because they want to be wind them up pulling straight ahead killing machines. they do that out of love. they did that out of love for their fellow man and because i want to be in a position to save your life not because of want to kill bad guys 5 one to make a difference and help out and put my life on the line for you. by the same token that i was a sniper willing to die for you i could be a good doctor willing to help you because it is all law. but the short answer is i still put people out of their misery,

justin and different way. getting back to one person making the difference, hollywood billionaires'. this is what disgusts me and most of us will never be hollywood stars. most of us will never be billionaires. look at what one guy told you about. normal guy. chief warrant officer walcott. team made a big difference in a lot of people's lives. that the warren buffetts of the world complain they're not paying enough taxes and foreign buffet really -- why doesn't he write a check and shut up and pay more taxes? i got sidetracked. the way we overcame that adversity -- and in the united states, unemployment. i turned 50 this year and in my lifetime i have never seen unemployment like this. never seen people look for a job. and i get 15 to 20 resumes four

over qualified people. those are scary times. we are living in adverse times. on top of that we have this big debt and everything and as corny as it sounds. team work -- not us against them or them against the 4 democrats and republicans how did we get to this point where you have to be a democrat or you have to be a republican? you have to believe all of what these people think for all of what these people think and you can't take it is twices. i believe a little of what you think and a little of what you think because we are two party nation. that is our demise. you can say take this guy and take this guy what he thinks and everybody -- what about

congress? what about people in congress who blindly follow a president along party lines regardless of what is right? how about some team work there? i say we take 156 to capitol hill and put them in charge for two weeks and make sure they attend a mandatory team work classes and do some pushups, those of them that can, get the country streamed out. [applause] >> you heard me talk about aircraft drawing fire. think about that. think about somebody willing to risk their lives to run out to draw fire away and be shot at. now we have people afraid to do what is right because you have to have party affiliation. i am a democrat, i have to think like this. i am a republican, i have to think like this. you don't. you are not doing right is right for the country. you are not playing as a team because the only thing you care about is what? being reelected. that is all i care about. i am a career politician.

reelect me. give me the life and luxury i am used to. i don't worry about health care. see when any of your congressman get for health care? look at their retirement. you think they really care? what they care most about is being reelected and to be reelected they stand behind one guy and ride his coattails. my point is this and i am glad this is on c-span. team work. we got to get back to team work. it made america great and got us through two world wars and countless other conflicts. teamwork. as corny as that sounds if we can get these knuckleheads on the belt way to start playing as a team and putting us first as americans and what is right for america instead of what is right for their party we would pull out of the new -- nosedive we are in. back to loss of life here. i told you about losing my friend and going through

survivor's guilt, admitting you need help. what about our politicians asking for some help? listen. i backed president obama when he took out osama bin laden. if you are and obama fan or not? here's the irony of the situation. president obama and president bush acted as a team to get osama bin laden. i see some funny faces now. they didn't plan on working as a team. it just happened that way. president obama did have to make the call to violate another nation's foreign sovereignty and go in and take this man out and did it right. he didn't know we were coming or someone would be waiting on us. but he admitted that he wasn't for water boarding. guess what? president bush okayed the water boarding that broke k s m who

told him where the carrier was going to the compound. it took both presidents doing what they thought was right and act of team work they didn't know they were doing to get the job done. why is it considered a weakness for one party to ask another party to help the mouth? house symbol is this? i really don't have all the answers but if we can sit down and talk through some of this maybe we can come up with that? that is not where we are as a country and i am afraid -- i might be out of touch and i am afraid -- i see 150 pages of a week, i am afraid we are being divided as a nation just because you have to be a democrat or a republican. you have to be left, you have to be right. i am retired navy seal. you would think i'm the most conservative individual that ever walked. i am not. i am a team player. i am for team work. there are some things i agree with on the right and some things i agree with on left.

at do you one thing. i don't think any should be ran down our throat and it should be bipartisan and when you are casting your votes and when you leave you talk to people. one thing we got to get out is i don't care who the next president is. i am at a point in my voting like that 50 years old where i vote for the lesser of two evils. i like this by a less than this guy or more than this guy. i am not here to pump you on one side or the other but one thing, that is team work. when voting for your local congressman or senators find out from them. has this guy voted on party-line every time come hell or high water? he doesn't care what constituents are saying. he cares about following his party. that is the team work i am talking about. we need to get back to that point. seal team 6 there was one reason

we would not win and it was our ways of communication. it could be on the wrong radio, the target location, there was always a reason why there was communication problem. not able to get a satellite feed or an interpreter. we got to start communicating in this country. set up a trap. i keep coming back to that. i am on politics. don't look as one party as all good and one party all evil. can anyone tell me for a fact we had one president that was all good? anyone know one? i would like to hear it? anyone know for a fact one president that was all bad? with the exception of jimmy carter. sorry. to say a winning team all we got to do is be informed. we got to the active. on my team i want to know how many doorkeeper's i had. will he be kicking the door with

this guy and this guy? when we do, at your door kickers, those are people willing to go to be that and willing to take a bullet for you. i mean it literally, jump in front of you and take a bullet for you. that is what we got to have. what we got to have is people who are informed and not blindly following somebody because he is on the left or the right. political affiliation aside let me tell you a story. there used to be a huge rivalry between the seal team 6 guys and the delta force guys. we are better than you, you are better than us, we are better than you are at this. guess what we started doing. general garrison put the seal team 6 guys with the delta force guys and made us -- we needed to go up to capitol hill, not made them -- made us spend time

together. he made red team hang out with charlie squadron and train with them and get to know them and learn from them. what a concept. we all got better. if we did this in this country, if politicians would do that with our neighbors and christians and muslims and individuals and learn it is not just my way or my belief or what i think regardless of who you are or were you come from you will improve. our nation will improve and we will improve as a society. back to finish the job, i want to run past a few parallels. when that blackhawk went down, part of the reason we're having so much trouble is we could get a search and rescue burden because we didn't have one and they were not in the loop.

when we took down the compound and took out osama bin laden everybody knows the helicopter went down. another blackhawk down. guess what the lesson learned was. have a stand by helicopter ready to take those people up. that is a lesson learned. got to take the same lessons learned that you learned in combat and apply them to your life and realize if i made this mistake in the past and it didn't work why am i going to keep doing the same thing? we got to do that as individuals and counterterrorism people and definitely do that as a nation. does anybody in here have the one friend that no matter what is going on, going through a divorce, having a bad day, daughter is dating somebody you don't like, all these personal experience things here. anybody go through three teenage

daughters? anyone besides me? that guy needs a metal too. everybody has that one person that you go to no matter how bad things are, this is the person you turn to to talk to that makes you feel better. the guy you saw in a helicopter, let me tell you about dan. dan was the delta force member and the youngest delta force sniper ever. that might not mean much to you guys but at 25 to be in delta for sandia sniper and be in that position to be that squared away, that calm under fire and that good, a christian guy that no matter what went that he was the guy you turned to is pretty remarkable. recently i had been in contact with his son. imagination son who is not even out of diapers who is now playing baseball in college. and missed all of that. hollywood is not going to show

you that because it doesn't sell seats. the reason i bring that up is don't rely on hollywood or any of these billionaires' or movie stars or most of these politicians to tell you the truth about what is going on in the world. this is something you got to do yourself. this is something you owe yourself as americans. when you get up in the morning and turn the water on and it comes out and you don't even think about electricity, you've got to learn for yourself what you are passionate about, learn for yourself what is really going on in the world and not be spoonfed. i flipped it over and watch bill o'reilly. don't laugh because some people -- i have done the sean hannity show twice. hy will flip over to bill o'reilly and look at how cut and dried bill has everything and if it was really that simple i would be the happiest man in the world but it is not.

by the same token i will turn to msn b.c. and listen to them and i am like oh my god, how delusional are these people? 5 listen to msn bci would never have to shoot a terrorist or bad guy in my life. we would do a group hug, smoke a joint and everybody would go home happy. that is not the real world. the primrose thing they paint is not real just like the thing bill -- somewhere in the middle is real and you got to figure that out by yourself. i did try to hug a terrorist one time and didn't work so we had to go to the next level. i say all that to tell you this. here is where we have come in our country. we have forgotten how to love. nobody sitting in this room came to see seal seal team 6 sniper telling you what is missing is love. you don't know anything about seal team 6. the men of seal team 6 have a

type of heart you can't imagine and i will tell you it is not a one them up point them straight ahead and let them be assassin type parts. i will die for you because you are an american. on any air when i went on, what religious affiliation are they? what color is bare skin? i a male or female? none of that. muslim or christian? nothing. were they an american citizen? if they were an american citizen i will die for you right now. imagine having that in your heart. that is what you military people have and we're counterterrorism unit have because they're doing it every day, throwing themselves. greater love hath no man than laydown his life for a friend. if you think these seal guys are killers and robots you don't

know the matter all. by the same token that i was a navy seal that is why i am a pretty good chiropractor and my patients feel the love when they come in my office. i have so many patients i can hardly see the knowledge people can tell when you love them. when i was kicking in the door and scrubbing in the womb he didn't realize that was love. i can express my love a little different. in closing i leave you with an example of how i know who love is missing in our country. after i got divorced, after i got out of the seal team i said i would never get married and because any of you who have been divorced know it is getting shot three times. i would rather get shot three more times. after my divorce i was a bachelor for a long time and got finally sent me the right woman who convinced me that i could do something else with my life. i don't live in a bottle any more. i don't have to take a ton of

prescription medication anymore for pain. it was a shameless plug for chiropractors. i have learned how to express myself besides just being point man on a team or doing something elite all the time. is a lesson i had to learn. me and that wife who totally turned me around and saves me not just from the world but for myself were in savannah, georgia. we live an hour-and-a-half from savannah, ga. but my wife is so special she has to drive an hour-and-a-half to get her hair done. i went with her to get her hair done because that is how with i am anymore. we finished getting debbie's hair done and leave and we are getting ready to go to our favorite restaurant and have dinner before we go home and is starting to rain. when i look to the right, there is nothing natural sitting at a red light about looking and

seeing somebody laying on their side in the rain in the middle of the drive going up to a 711. i looked over and i see this older man, probably 75 or not that old laying on his side and i could tell he was struggling to get up and is starting to rain harder and i am stuck at the red light and when the light changes we got to help this guy. for two seconds my heart leapt in my chest. treaty young men pull up next to him, got out of their car, walked around to him and i am thinking saying god there's hope for america, we still have love for each other. and my heart broke. one of the guys meltdown behind him and pose while the other guy managed to take a picture of this guy meltdown next to this guy. they changed positions and took another picture of the other guy sitting down and i 5s each other and drove off.

if that had been a dog on the side of the road with a broken leg laying down, everybody in this room would have stopped and helped that dog. this was a human being. that could have been a crack head, could have been whatever. is a human being. if you have to think that hard about it, read the bottom line again. love is what we are missing. we don't even love each other to stop and look. let me finish my story. when the light changed i pulled over next to him and got out and closed the door and is raining real good, reach down and set i will put my hand under your shoulder and set you up and we will stand up. bring your bottom way forward. he is not doing it. this guy must be drunk or cracked out of his head or whatever but we are going to get him out of the road. i don't care. the reason the man couldn't bring his bottom leg forward as it turns out later when we were

talking is he had his leg shot off in vietnam. lie leg was hit right here. if it had been shot seven mm lateral my leg would have been blown off. that man is a homeless alcoholic now. i look at that man and go except for the grace of god there go i. if that blood had been 7 mm to the right on my leg i already told you i went to the bottle when i came home. that might be me laying on that street. granted, i was treated the lot better than the vietnam veterans were. god bless those guys. that guy came home, lost his family, after he lost his leg, became an alcoholic and lives in a homeless shelter over their. next time you see anybody that needs your help, no matter what it might be, that might be a

beggar or somebody that really needs help, remember this -- except for the grace of god there goes you. go all the way back to the first point of my power point presentation. nobody in here did anything to deserve to be born in america. you were born to the greatest country in the world with all the benefits that go along with it because god put you hear. thank you for your attention. i love you very much. god bless america. [applause] >> they asked me for the queue and day. we have a few minutes for questions and answer. if anyone has any questions, use this microphone because they are taking. any questions? come forward and use the microphone now. i must be pretty thorough. don't be afraid. it is only c-span. >> what part of the microphone

didn't you understand? thank you. >> what do you think about the book about the seals? >> i knew that was coming. my personal opinion, this is just my opinion, i don't the grudge anybody their first amendment rights. if you have something sticking in your craw and he wants to set the record straight, that is one thing. i think this soon after that raid with a lot of people in danger not the least of which is him and his family. it should have been vetted. i had five drafts of my book. the last one general shall look at who was chairman of the joint chiefs of staff and if you are out of the military and going to write a book you should go through especially that type, this is like changing stuff. the biggest thing that has happened in decades. it should have at least had a look at buying people in a position of authority at the

pentagon or whatever. that is something he did. he was the member of that team and earned the right to express himself. i hope everything turns out all right with this. my book was a no-brainer. 20 years after the fact almost. they made a major motion picture and another book about it. those that read my book know it is not about thumping chests. being up about here was not about me something my chest saying i was an elite navy seal sniper killer. it is about overcoming adversity. and i hope there is some good that comes out of a book but it seems politically driven. that answer your question? next? yes, sir? >> training with the delta force i wonder if you did anything with the australians are the brits? >> you read my book. you know these answers.

in my memoirs that is something i covered in detail, training with the s p s guys. don't tell any of this, but they in australia were actually my personal favorites. great guys. having said that there are a lot of other good special operations units out there. i got back from a two week european tour. there are a lot of good guys in a world. america does not have the corner on the market of good guys. there are a lot of guys doing good stuff. is that it? >> you have made an impact on my life. it is an excellent talk. >> thank you very much. that is a good note to end on. thanks for coming. i will make myself available for 25 minutes if you want to get

your book signed or autographed. i will be right outside. thank you for being a great audience. [applause] >> we would like to hear from you. tweet as your feedback at twitter.com/booktv. you are watching booktv on c-span2. here is our prime time lineup for tonight. starting at 7:00 eastern charles kessler examines the obama administration in i am the change. at 8:00 the 77th book awards in cleveland. awards are presented to books that made an important contribution to society's understanding of racism and diversity of human cultures. we conclude with prime-time programming with weekly afterwards program. john jenkins discusses the life of william rehnquist in the partisan with post jon cubic. this is booktv.org with more on this weekend's television

schedule. >> booktv's visit to augusta, maine with time warner cable highlight some of the rich literary culture of the area. the city of agusta has evolved from being a trading post in the 1700s to being a magazine publishing hub from the 1800s to the 20th century and also home to harriet beecher stowe, author of uncle tom's kevin. our coverage of the visit continues. >> the only city that actually has a major river and we occupied both sides of the river so we have an east and west side of the river and the river has become a defining point so that is unique. the other thing is what is unique is the state capital, we have access -- we host the state legislature and the governor's mansion and have all the

government services you would expect to have with it being the state capital. state capital has its benefits. we are proud of being the state capital. i am sure if you have been to the state government in your backyard, it can pose some difficulties and stresses but we have a good working relationship with the state and get along with them and appreciate what being the capital provides. >> you think those challenges? >> we have significant amounts of untaxed property because the state is here. all the state property does not pay property taxes. that puts a burden on the property taxpayer in augusta. the residential loner and commercial loner. when you have such a large